Restaurant Pays Servers A More Livable Wage While Donating Tips To Charity – Fair Or Unfair?

To tip or not to tip, that is the question. A tip used to be a reward given to a server or servicer by a customer for a job well done. A restaurant in San Antonio, Texas has decided to pay servers a more livable hourly wage and not allow them to keep their tips, which are donated by the restaurant to a local charity….is that fair? First of all, let me say that I am a firm believer in tipping especially for great service and I consider myself to be a very generous tipper, never tipping less than 20%, much higher for great service.

So many restaurants anymore have removed the novelty of tipping by factoring tips into the hourly wage, which is why some restaurants pay something like $2.10 an hour, plus tips, which basically equals at least minimum wage or slightly higher. Some restaurants make the servers put all tips into a pool to be split equally at the end of the shift. I think both of these practices are completely unfair.

Oaks Crossing in San Antonio is discouraging customers from leaving tips, but if tips are left, they are donated to local charitable causes. Shouldn’t that decision be left to the customer, especially if the money is going to a charity? What if the customer doesn’t support that charity? What if that customer simply wants to reward that server with a little extra?

The restaurant says they are paying their servers a higher hourly wage to compensate for the loss of tips, but they are not saying exactly how much more they are being paid. I think a tip should be between a customer and server and the restaurant should not have anything to do with it whatsoever.

The whole thing just sounds kind of strange to me. So far the restaurant has donated about $600 in tip money to a local library fund. I just can’t help but think that those servers are getting completely hosed, what do you think?

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